Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans

Rome. More importantly, beginning in the mid first century ad, various Roman emperors decreed citizenship for different groups of provincials. In many cases, this was done a city at a time; in others, the status of an entire province was changed at once. At least in some parts of the empire, there was an inter mediate stage during which the once-foreign community was made to be Latin (a term that had now lost all connection to its local origins). The move toward a single citizenship was not uniform, but it went only in one direction. Finally, in ad 212, virtually all free inhabitants of the empire were made citizens by the emperor Caracalla.

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